AURUM: It takes your eyes a little while to adjust to the light.
AURUM: You're in a state-of-the-art clinic - for Solberg, at any rate; for Ezekiel it looks like something out of some crazy sci-fi story, and for the others, who even knows - on beds, with little motes of light dancing and flickering around your bodies that disperse as you finally wake up.
AURUM: (It feels like you've been out for a while.)
AURUM: There's a faint, but noticeable rumbling - a deep hum you feel rather than hear.
AURUM: A doctor - Doctor Rao - is standing there in an immaculate white coat, reassuringly human.
Nine blinks slowly, he puts a hand on his forehead, looking around
Ezekiel: "Huh. That was a different transition from normal."
Eidolon: "(-any party you can walk away from…)" He rubs his head, sitting up in a plush white bed, the smell of a nearby apocothery tickling his nose. "(-or wake up in a hospital from.)"
Solberg: "It makes sense if you think about it."
Ezekiel: "All the weird dream people are still here though so I'm either stoned as fuck or still zonked out."
Clarafina sits up stock-straight. "Ah!" she says. "How marvelous."
AURUM: "Your ship was floating in negative space. It's lucky we were paying as close attention as we were, or we'd have missed it."
Nine doesn't moves from the bed, looks at the doctor, still rubbing his eyes "Negative space?"
Eidolon: "I'm positive I had it under control…"
Solberg: "In control. While we were all knocked out by happy gas."
AURUM: "I'm not sure how in the world it was sustaining itself against the vacuum pressure, either, but I managed to stop the logomests from running any experiments on your property."
Nine sits slowly "Given the way things are going, I wouldn't bother trying to figure that one out"
Clarafina: "You weren't worried that it might have been a trap?"
Nine: "Where are we?"
AURUM: "Ahh- the space in between narrative structures sufficient to constitute a 'universe'. You mentioned 'happy gas'… let me guess, you were investigating the lunar anomaly as well?"
Eidolon: "Oh no…"
Eidolon flops back down onto the bed.
AURUM: Rao frowns.
Nine: "Ah, there we go. Yes, we were… Sort of"
Eidolon: "I thought we were making a cosmic omlette?"
Solberg: "Correct."
AURUM: "…anyways, this is the-" -and he mouths /words/, but what you -see-, and somehow -know-, is: ＜秩序大風ヘン ： Ｔｈｅ Ｒｅｆｌｅｃｔｉｎｇ Ｐｏｏｌ＞ - "-we've got your ship in one of our cargo holds for safekeeping."
Clarafina: "How safe is it?"
Nine chuckles
AURUM: "The… cargo hold?"
Ezekiel: "You know,"
Ezekiel: You'd think when spoken out loud it's flip to romanji….
Solberg: Would it make sense to you in that form?
Clarafina: "Well…"
Ezekiel: A bit more yeah.
Clarafina: "And everything else you have, too."
Clarafina smiles sweetly.
Nine: "We're… Wandering, a little bit"
Solberg: "Logomests."
Solberg: "Are those safe."
AURUM: "Heh. Right to the chase. We're stuck in the event horizon of the lunar anomaly. Half in, half out."
AURUM: "It's… perfectly safe, and perfectly stable, and affords us certain opportunities for research that we've been taking advantage of."
Eidolon looks around for a window.
Ezekiel: "Tee hee."
AURUM: "And the logomests are perfectly safe if you get them a little tipsy and don't bring up the secret science."
Solberg: "The what?"
AURUM: "I already know you're a logomest- or whatever passes for one wherever you come from- do you really want me to dignify that with a response?" He grins, good-naturedly. "Besides, it'd not my field of expertise; I'd probably get the explanation wrong and turn into a frog."
Nine does this odd thing where he just adjusts his position against the bed like he's trying harder to feel it "Okay, so you mean people with… Whatever traits we have at the moment"
Ezekiel: "This sure is a place we woke up in."
Nine: "What kind of research are you performing right now?"
AURUM: There's a window, but it's just showing static right now.
Eidolon: "Your window's broken."
AURUM: "Simulated universal annealing. Trying different social parameters, telling different stories, seeing which ones stick, which ones maximise well-being and minimise suffering."
AURUM: "My people are trying to build a refuge, and if we ever get the chance, it'd be nice to try and optimise the process beforehand."
Solberg sits upright and turns to look directly at Rao, showing a rare moment of animated interest in something instead of their usual detached nature. "I am intrigued."
Eidolon: "Min-maxing a narrative?"
Nine closes his eyes for a second "Well"
Ezekiel: "How the super racist robot version work into that?"
Nine: "I asked her who could possibly be conducting this experient"
Nine: "Now I know"
Clarafina: "Dream-thinning."
Eidolon exhales, with a tone that is a mix of impressed and disbeliving. "Good luck with that."
Nine: "I suppose rather than artificially creating a perfect narrative from the start they are trying to find a way in which they can successfully alter their own narrative to an optimal state"
Eidolon: "I doubt you could get remotely similar narratives if you asked all of us."
AURUM: "Testing various hypotheses about uniformity vs. diversity."
Clarafina: "The truth has a way of leaking into stories. That, ah, it might be part of the appeal, don't you think?"
Nine: "Because wherever they go, they're taking their own"
AURUM: "Testing hypotheses about population density."
AURUM: "That sort of thing."
Ezekiel: "Right on."
Clarafina: "But it's not just that."
Clarafina: "It's what you're doing, leaking into the story itself."
Ezekiel: "So who are we supposed to beat up now that we're here?"
Nine: "Hopefully nobody, Ezekiel"
Nine: "On that note" he looks out the window "Since you're out here"
Ezekiel: "Bro we've beat up someone everywhere we've gone, it's kind of a thing at this point."
Nine: "Did you see someone, maybe a rocket or another vehicle, pass by?"
Clarafina: "Oh!"
Solberg: "What do you mean about truth leaking into stories, Clarafina? I should think it's the other way around."
AURUM: He glances between Solberg and Clarafina, a little curiously.
Clarafina: "To tell a story requires a teller. The teller understands the story well and themselves little."
Clarafina: "As such, that which they can control the least is the things which betray their own nature."
Nine shakes his head at Clarafina
AURUM: "And then we get a clearer understanding of our own capabilities."
Clarafina: "Have you ever read any of the Decameron?"
Solberg: "I have not."
Clarafina: "There was a performance of it, once, at the Palace. Before things."
AURUM: "Huh. They have that story where you're from, too?"
Solberg: "Isn't that thread's trail a little short, though? If an ugly truth comes out, one's more prone to justify it and deny it, unless they have an unflinching nature. Truth is made, not observed."
Solberg: "If it weren't, then Rao wouldn't be here studying."
Clarafina: "We can't make any truth, though."
Nine: "Incorrect, Clarafina"
AURUM: "What's true is already so. Owning up to it doesn't make it worse. Lying about it doesn't make it go away. It's what's there to be dealt with, and we can stand it, because we're already enduring it whether we know it or not."
AURUM: "Gendlin. I'm paraphrasing a little."
Clarafina wags a finger at Nine. "I disagree. Observe:"
Clarafina: The Lunar anomaly implodes upon itself and vanishes.
AURUM: Except…
AURUM: It doesn't!
Clarafina smiles.
Clarafina: "Some things are written. Some things are true!"
Nine raises an eyebrow at Clarafina "You didn't even try to make anything"
AURUM: Rao -does- raise an eyebrow and check something on his phone, though, and gives Clarafina a funny half-smile.
Nine: "You merely stated it" he stands up, and throws his blanket over Clarafina's head "See, that's how you make a truth"
Nine: "The incapacity to do is merely a lack of understanding of the methods of manipulating the world"
Nine: "Also sorry for the mess"
Clarafina tilts her head from beneath the blanket.
Solberg: "For once, I actually agree with Nine."
AURUM: "…anyways. If there's an ugly truth, I want to know the ugly truth, believe it with my entire heart. I think everyone that's left is like that."
Clarafina: "If you admit there are methods,"
Solberg: "Or at least I don't have the urge to punch him in the mouth when he was talking."
Clarafina: "Then there are methods."
Eidolon: "Yeah, well… you know what they say about chasing the truth that burns. And if you actually do know, then congratulations on reading through all that."
Nine looks at Rao
Nine: "To know that ugly truth. And use it, control it, change it into something better"
Clarafina: "Hmm, Nine's doing that thing where he says two different things and acts like it's just one thing."
Nine: "To maybe turn the power to destroy a world into the power to create one"
Eidolon swings his legs off the bed and attempts to stand, and if still unmolested, starts floating towards an exit door.
Clarafina pulls herself upright, wearing the blanket thrown on her like a mantle.
Nine: "I suppose that's at least a home of mine"
Clarafina: I mean, upright and standing.
AURUM: "Hah! I mean, at the very least we know what to wall off if we ever get around to creating a world."
Ezekiel: "You're right lets go find the beat-me-up sign Eidolon!"
AURUM: The exit door.
Ezekiel trails after him.
Nine sighs "Seems like the team's moving. Can always count on them for that."
Nine: "We aren't all done with the reasons we're in here after all"
Nine: "Come along, doctor?"
Eidolon: "Admittedly,"
Clarafina: "Of course!"
Clarafina: "Or did you mean the other one?"
Eidolon: "I regret cutting the scene before you three could start a pillow fight."
Nine: "Both"
AURUM: There's a long hallways, with a mirrored floor, and windows along both sides. Some of the windows look out onto the surface of the golden lunar surface - it's practically all you can see - and some of the windows look out onto a shimmering rainbow mist.
Nine starts heading along with Eidolon
Clarafina waltzes along -!
AURUM: Dr. Rao follows behind, looking bemused.
Ezekiel: "Dude what is with your floors."
Clarafina: "The static's resolved."
Ezekiel: "This is some fucking premo sekku-haru."
Nine: "Explain that one, Ezekiel"
Eidolon snorts once he understands what Ezekiel means.
Ezekiel: "The floor is a mirror, Hime-sama is wearing a dress!"
Nine: "Ah, right"
AURUM: A woman in robes that look somewhere precisely between 'snazzy uniform' and 'ridiculous space elf scifi robes' - there are tron lines - snaps her fingers, and the floor goes matte.
Nine shakes his head
Clarafina: "You've ruined it for everyone!"
Clarafina shakes a finger at Ezekiel.
Solberg: "The vector is time. Truth is state. Perception of continuity between different states is artificial. 'No man steps in the same river twice.' Though, perhaps, your truth is the trajectory of states from one moment to the next. Change occurs, but the change is bound to feasibility."
Ezekiel: "Yeah I'm the worst."
AURUM: "Prudes~." She floats her way over to the party, glancing over them dismissively one-by-one until she points at Solberg. "You're the logomest Rao was chirping ab- yeah, you're the logomest."
Clarafina: "And that binding, that feasibility…"
AURUM: "Bingo. Charting a path through possibility-space."
Clarafina: "That's how truth leaks into the story."
Solberg: "I'm the what now."
AURUM: "Except then this big stupid moon shows up, and says 'ha ha, I'm a moon, and I'm also a black hole. Get dunked, kid.'"
AURUM: "Hang on a sec."
Ezekiel: "The logomest."
AURUM: She starts fucking with her sumafo.
Eidolon: "The logomest with the most."
Solberg: "I got that much."
Nine: "Certainly going somewhere, this"
Eidolon: "To hell if we don't change our ways."
Ezekiel points at Eidolon. "Ayy."
Eidolon snap-thumbs up back.
Nine looks as the woman fiddles with the phone
Solberg: "But truth is pure. Once mixed…"
AURUM: "Ugh, sorry about that."
AURUM: She puts the phone away.
Solberg: "Have you asked him out yet?"
Ezekiel: "What was zoidberg searching for anyway? Everyone else was pretty easy."
AURUM: "Her, and yes, but she's currently kidnapped by a transdimensional ghost story living in our ship's basement, which makes things a little difficult."
AURUM: "I mean, also, we've been dating since before time stopped having a meaning, anyways, but that's beside the point."
Solberg: "Ah, good for you."
Eidolon: "No, please-"
Eidolon: "Let's not bring time into this."
Nine chuckles
Nine: "You remind me of someone"
Solberg glances back at Ezekiel. "Explored possibility space. Truth's trajectory."
Nine: "Who'd have the worst possible reaction when time was mentioned in a story"
Clarafina: "Ah! But consider:"
Ezekiel stares at Solberg for a bit.
Clarafina pipes down, thinking better of it.
Solberg: "A very big sports almanac."
Nine: "That said, this sounds like it's a somewhat common ocurrence given your demeanor so I suspect things go as is normal? Or do you require assistance?"
Ezekiel: "Oh are we gunna steal these guys' super computer for you?"
Eidolon: "Anyway,"
Eidolon: "We won't tell if you need Sol' for a fling or whatever."
AURUM: "Anyways, logomestry. The study of narrative and its reflection and refraction, blah blah, cracks in crystal, blah, the breadth and depth of possibility-space, blah." She does a little talky-flap gesture with her hand while she's talking.
AURUM: "That's what you guys do, isn't it?"
AURUM: "Hop into someone else's story, stir things up, dart on to the next."
Nine: "With all the grace of a train running through a glass art exhibit"
Eidolon: "It's a bit out of the norm for me -personally- but I'm very mercenary about these sorts fo things."
Ezekiel: "That is definitely what my never ending story dreaming is all about at the moment yeah."
Nine: "And all the knowledge of a rock"
Nine: "But yes"
Clarafina: "Actually, we would very much enjoy bringing some tortured ghosts to their eternal rest, so we could do that."
Clarafina: "Or we could commandeer your ship!"
Nine: "Clarafina please"
Eidolon: "Fair warning, these aren't mutually exclusive options."
Clarafina: "I see the glimmer in your eyes, Nine!"
Clarafina: "You'd enjoy it more. The only difference is that you're waiting for an excuse."
Clarafina nods sagely. "Far more polite to put it on the table."
Nine: "I have always been a fan of starfaring stories, yes, but i'd rather there not be a reason"
AURUM: "I'm kind of fond of the ship, but at the same time, I'm feeling trustworthy today."
Solberg: "Who, besides you, mentioned anything about ghosts?"
Ezekiel: "I mean,"
AURUM: "You already have a ship and it's frankly more interesting than this one."
Ezekiel: "Dudelady did."
Clarafina: "There's a ghost story in the lower decks."
Clarafina: "Isn't this one bigger? I was under the impression you were supposed to, ah, sort of continuously scale up."
Eidolon: "Something something, bigger isn't always better, something blah, crystals…"
AURUM: "Tch. Size queens."
Ezekiel: "Woah I don't even wanna know how crystals factor into that Eidolon."
Solberg shrugs at the - unnamed person? - in resigned agreement.
Nine: "He's made of stars and galaxies, Ezekiel, i'm very certain it's absolutely normal for him"
Eidolon: "Ezekiel please, you've met the Sin."
Clarafina corrects: "Size princess!"
AURUM: "Right, sorry."
Ezekiel: "Notmyfetish."
AURUM: She looks like she's trying pretty hard not to giggle.
Eidolon: "Anyway. Let's take another look at this lunar golden star story."
Eidolon: "Why did things stabilize around… this?"
AURUM: "There's an unbelievable nexus of creative and destructive potential…"
Solberg: "And I meant a -desire- to get ourselves tangled in the ghost story - I feel like we've got enough plot threads as it is. Maxed out our concurrency."
AURUM: "It's like a giant egg waiting to hatch."
Nine puts a hand on his chin
Nine: "Yes we saw that"
AURUM: "Except, its status hasn't changed in as long as we've been stuck here monitoring it."
Nine: "Surprisingly, it's that egg that brought us here, in a way"
Clarafina: "Plot threads, smhmot smchreads. If someone's in trouble…"
AURUM: "Different egg. Useful metaphor. Reuse it a lot."
Ezekiel: "It's true Aurum is good at getting things off the ground and running at a consistant pace…………………………………."
Nine furrows his eyebrows
AURUM: "Also, if you help with the ghost story I'll give you a copy of all of our archives."
Ezekiel long pause, looks up at the sky and winks.
AURUM: "All of them."
AURUM: She grins at Solberg.
Nine: "Oh, yes, golden moon, Aurum. Alright, it makes sense"
AURUM: ^_~ @ Ezekiel.
Solberg: "Sold." They said that as soon as the 's' in 'archives' was finished.
AURUM: "Splendid!" She starts drifting off towards a certain doorway. "Come along!"
Nine: "Well, that's our next destination solved. Perfectly expected" he follows
Clarafina nods seriously and continues along.
Ezekiel: "Which one of you nerds had us going into a crazy future space ship and then decided this was going to be a story about ghost instead of literally anything else."
Nine keeps looking around the ship as they go, through the window at the moon. Then, doing his best not to be creepy, he looks their guide over. She's rather vaguely descripted, though wether that is important or not he's yet to know
AURUM: Some more corridors. You pass a few more people. The ship looks like it could support a lot more crew than it's got; it's a little lonely-seeming.
Eidolon: "It was not, sadly, about meeting blue alien women and their weird millienias-long culture."
Nine is used to those kinds of structures
Ezekiel: "And coming to a " Mutual Understanding "," Ezekiel nods to Eidolon as he airqoutes.
AURUM: Dark brown skin, flowing purple hair, crazy scifi dress with tron lines, not-very-serious look on her face. 'eccentric inventor' type. You'd get along!
Solberg: "It's me. I'm the nerd."
Ezekiel: "This is why not zoidberg, just."
Ezekiel: "If anyone was wondering."
Clarafina: "Ghosts are isomorphic to sick people, so I was on board from the get-go."
AURUM: "A ghost is just a sick person displaced along the time axis!" She adds, cheerfully.
AURUM: "Although I don't know if what we picked up is a /person/ or not."
Nine: "It's something"
Nine: "With some luck one of two somethings I'm interested in seeing"
Nine: "Quite possibly one of them, actually"
Clarafina extends a hand and the black tron-lines coursing along the walls and the floor reveal themselves to be Clarafina's ribbons. One of them winds around the guide's ankles, delaying her a little as Clarafina strides ahead.
Clarafina: "Person or not, we'll find out in the operation. Let's begin!"
Solberg: "Well, more like an arbitrary collection of atoms arranged in a certain way that we recognize as a person at one point in time was later arranged into a different configuration that we no longer recognize as being alive at a different point in time."
Ezekiel: "PS the thing you're looking for it the egg Nine,"
Ezekiel: "Spoiler Alert."
AURUM: "You guys know anything about something that impacted the surface of the moon just before the anomaly started, by the way? Seems like you were on roughly the same trajectory before you stalled out in the anomaly."
Clarafina: "Yes!"
Clarafina: "He's a little bit of a coward, but I'm sure he's alright."
Solberg: "A humanoid rabbit andscam artist/
[OOC] Solberg: Wow my keyboard mangled that up.
Nine: "It most likely is, not in the manner you may be thinking, Ezekiel"
AURUM: She raises both eyebrows, stopping in front of a big shiny door. "That sounds interesting."
Solberg: "Hence my reluctance to go along with another plot thread."
Nine: "Also, that means what you picked up wasn't him, sadly. He's a bit of a liar, but I like him, wanted to know where he wound up"
Nine: "That said, the 'Wanderer' Ezekiel's owly friend mentioned may well be what you ran into"
AURUM: "We saw -something- crash into the moon, then the anomaly kicked up, and we got stuck here."
AURUM: "Then half our crew vanished into a lotus eater edge-universe and the ghost showed up!"
AURUM: "That part kinda sucked."
Solberg: "No tapir at the handy, huh?"
AURUM: "Distinct lack of tapirs."
AURUM: She unlocks the door and it slides open; mist spills out.
Clarafina puts on her mask.
AURUM: "I can't actually follow you in, or else I'd have tried to take care of the problem myself. Ghost voodoo."
Solberg: "Are we actually dealing with loa here?"
AURUM: She tosses Solberg a tomestone. "Annika's got the encryption keys. See you all on the flip side."
AURUM: "Naw."
AURUM: "I mean, shit, maybe."
AURUM: "I doubt it, though."
Solberg pockets the … it's totally a USB drive, isn't it?
Solberg: "Anyhow. Noted, and take care."
AURUM: It's totally a USB drive. Just, with tron lines.
AURUM: Anyways, inside:
Clarafina forges onwards into the mist, and:
Eidolon floats forward.
AURUM: The corridors get more metallic and practical; railings and stairs surrounding a central drive core.
Nine is fine with this change of aesthetic
AURUM: Some kind of music in the background, but it sounds really vague and floaty and hard to pick out yet.
AURUM: The stairs echo more than they should, and something smells like cinnamon, and there's a faint breeze, curling around your clothes and Eidolon's cape and Clarafina's ribbons.
Ezekiel: "Nice, came with BGM this time."
Nine raises an eyebrow "If there's any Dark Matter involved in this"
Solberg: "I mean, there's the forward passage of time."
Solberg: "Does that count?"
Nine: "Nah, I doubt Aurum's ever heard of what i'm thinking"
AURUM: That BGM just keeps getting louder and louder, and you can pick out some words.
AURUM: -understand, understand-
AURUM: echoing through the hull,
Ezekiel: "OH GOD."
AURUM: like a plea.
Ezekiel: "EVERYONE."
Ezekiel: "GET HYPE."
Nine: "Oh no, if Ezekiel's going nuts it's going to be weird"
Eidolon: "I don't get it," he says, in as flat a manner as he can, staring at Ezekiel.
Ezekiel: "Okay lets go kill an evil murderous AI!!!!"
Ezekiel: "I know this song!"
Clarafina: "Marvelous!" She draws her axe.
Nine: "Do you now"
Ezekiel: "Yeah!"
Ezekiel: "Okay check this:
AURUM: Music's getting louder as you reach a platform - [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou-xCHFdG0c ]
Ezekiel pulls out his cellphone, fiddles with it a bit until there's dial and knobs and shit on it, then uses it to turn up the space stations speakers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4IEV8l-gA
Clarafina: "Oh!"
Clarafina: "No, it's the other version."
Nine: "Okay, it's what I thought"
Nine: "Despite lacking context"
Ezekiel: "Por que no los dos."
Nine continues heading ahead, though by now he's started muttering along with the music
AURUM: The faint outlines of PSX-era polygon golden wings, translucent and barely visible through the mist, rising from some central point near the drive core.
Clarafina knits herself a walkway of black ribbon to approach it.
AURUM: Someone's tied up, there - chains made out of words, flowing over each other like water - wearing a captain's uniform, gold hair, gold eyes, a stylised pin in the shape of an angel, and in between the last platform and the drive core, as you approach on a ribbon walkway -
Ezekiel: "This is *definitely* the dumbest chapter, if anyone was curious."
Clarafina: "I was!"
Ezekiel: "Well, now ya know!"
Solberg: "I'll hurl you off of the ship before the next one starts if you don't rescind that."
AURUM: A shimmering, shifting figure -
Nine looks at the shine, raising an eyebrow. He looks at Clarafina. Looks back at the shine.
Ezekiel tilts his head backwards towards Solberg. "What - Is - Love?"
AURUM: Unable to keep to one shape, shifting between different descriptions of the same concept -
Clarafina: "Love is free, and love is kind."
Clarafina: "But beauty…" She levels her axe.
Clarafina: "Beauty makes me sick!"
Ezekiel: "I guess that explains the mask."
Nine: "Then it isn't beautiful at all, Clarafina"
Clarafina: "That's exactly it!"
Eidolon: "You're all fucking nutter."
AURUM: Bound together by an ineffable identity of Melinth Doel, bridging stories, brought here in the form of a legend in the minds of the ship's inhabitants.
Nine: "Also don't charge in blind before we know what exactly, or vaguely I guess, we're facing"
Ezekiel: "You ever have one of those times,"
Solberg: "Which kind of love, Ezekiel? ἀγάπη? ἔρως? φιλία? στοργή?"
Ezekiel: "Were you see something,"
Ezekiel: "and have this explicable urge to laugh like a lunatic,"
Ezekiel: "and you're not really sure why?"
Nine: "If it is explicable"
Solberg: "It's an urge I suppress daily."
Nine: "Then you are very sure why"
Nine: "I'll grant you all this one, however"
Eidolon: "That's what makes it a lunatic high, yes."
Ezekiel: "Heee."
Bound Figure: "Rahia sent you, didn't she? I'm Annika- the captain of the Pool. Think you can help me out here?"
Clarafina: The chauffeur, the manipulator and the subservient, uniform all sleek and black, the cold countenance of a knight-templar. Let's not make any more kings, shall we?
Nine: "That's the plan"
Clarafina: "Almost certainly."
Annika: "Excellent."
Clarafina: "I'll make the first cut?"
Nine: "Any particular reason this person has you bound, by the way?"
AURUM: And the mist-effigy turns, eyes shimmering with the essence of distrust.
Annika: "I was going to do something dumb, and second-guessed myself. Pro tip don't do that when performing a kP operation in the presence of an intense, unknown flux anomaly, it ends with stories coming alive and chaining you to your own ship's drive core."
Clarafina takes a step forward, and slashes through one of the chains-of-words with 'Pecado'.
Nine: "Ah, great. Here was I hoping we could minimize the level of violence involved"
AURUM: And with that provocation, the effigy moves in!
AURUM: Battle order: Clarafina [F]:0 Nine [B]:2 Melinth Doel [F]:2 Solberg [B]:3 Eidolon [B]:4 Ezekiel [F]:5
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [====================] Prism Targeting(U)
AURUM: Clarafina!
Nine: "Someone has been very keen on seeing us perform it"
Eidolon: "When has that ever worked, Nine."
Nine: "It is one of my goals, Eidolon, wether it works or not is meaningless. What matter is that I must always find a way"
Nine: "Or well, in less poetic words. It haven't, but I can still have hope"
Ezekiel gestures to the giant peice of paper attached to Melinth Doel with the words 'kick me' scrawled over it.
Ezekiel: "I mean, can't argue with that Nine."
Eidolon: "In a more general sense I might agree with you, but I mean."
Eidolon: "It's one of strife and solutions through strife."
Clarafina slashes through one of the chains, and one of her ribbons moves to entwine and infest it - [Heart Bind - 50D]
Eidolon: "Most stories are, and the ones that aren't…"
Clarafina rolled 1d100 and got 90 ( Total: 90 ) for C80/10
[OOC] Clarafina: -1 LP!
Eidolon: "Well, they can loiter in the bargin bin."
Clarafina rolled 1d10+120 and got 1 ( Total: 121.0 )
Nine: "I'd care more about reading a good story"
Nine: "If they were just stories"
Clarafina: Striking for 121 physical damage. Binds the heart - (4) - name a spell Doel uses, please!
AURUM: Atelier Field!
[OOC] Clarafina: Heart Bind punishes it [120](4)
[OOC] Clarafina: First invocation only. You know. Binds!
AURUM: Nine!
Nine sighs, a red light shining under his lab coat "All systems, red alert" [Red Alert, 30D]
Solberg: "So, these legends, these stories - are those the truth that's leaked out?"
Solberg: "I want to hear your interpretation of what we see before us, Fina."
Eidolon: "You know Sol's serious when they start becoming more familiar."
AURUM: Melinth Doel strikes at Solberg and Nine with [Lose Will]!
AURUM rolled 2d100 and got 84, 98 ( Total: 182 ) for 80
Ezekiel: "Who's Fina, though."
AURUM: She spends a luck to make it hit Solberg! [Angel Suppression Training]
Clarafina: A shape that was once a cane but is now a sceptre, a pillar of creation, an arc of brilliant gold -
Nine shield himself with his left arm. He's already gone through far too much to lose will right now!
Solberg spends a luck to make it not hit. … Are we going to get in this arms race?
Solberg: I guess luck's sort of like will. Mission accomplished?
AURUM: Angel vs. Angel Suppression! …Solberg wins this round.
AURUM: Solberg!
Solberg swings back, striking with their baton. [Attack]
Solberg rolled 1d100 and got 32 ( Total: 32 ) for 80
Solberg rolled d10*0.8+72*0.8 and got 8 ( Total: 64.0 ) for backrow, gains 40 TMP
AURUM: Hits for [64]!
AURUM: Eidolon!
Eidolon opens his third eye, eyeing Doel. [CT 10]
AURUM: Ezekiel!
Ezekiel darts forward, slamming his knife into the shape of a woman in a suit with short black hair and a large gun. [After Me] [47D]
Ezekiel rolled d100 and got 75 ( Total: 75 )
AURUM: Hits!
Ezekiel rolled d8+81,150% and got 5 ( Total: 129.0 ) for pow strike, also, next person to hit her before she acts deals +30%
AURUM: Eidolon!
Eidolon 's body dims slightly [Backfeed] and then he fires a beam from his forehead! [Oracle Energy, 35D]
Ezekiel: The monitors flicker and a countdown appears on them: They start at 3, then ticks down to 2.
Eidolon rolled 1d8+120,130 and got 5 ( Total: 162.5 )
Marked!
Eidolon: "Okay, so here comes the big one."
Eidolon: "Well, in a little bit."
AURUM: Battle order: Nine [B]:0 Solberg [B]:6 Melinth Doel [F]:10 Eidolon [B]:17 Clarafina [F]:18 Ezekiel [F]:20
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [============== ] Prism Targeting(U) Heart Bind [Atelier Field] [120](3)
AURUM: Nine!
Nine considers for a moment. Loads a vial of light blue liquid inside a cylindrical device. He pulls out a wire from his left sleeve and connects it to the device [Blast Charge, CT15]
AURUM: Solberg!
Solberg tilts their head, and strikes again. "You're on the slow side, aren't you?" [Attack]
Solberg rolled 1d100 and got 96 ( Total: 96 ) for 80
[OOC] Solberg: not spending luck
AURUM: Clonk
AURUM: Delay?
[OOC] Solberg: 50D
AURUM: She starts charging [Atelier Field].
AURUM: Nine!
Nine tosses the cylinder at Doel, a crimson field is highlighted under her "Clear blast area" the cylinder hits the ground… And explodes in a cloud of freezing gas with immense force! [Blast Charge, 35D]
Nine rolled 1d12+240,150 and got 2 ( Total: 363.0 ) for +15D to Doel
AURUM: Kaboom!
[OOC] Nine: HP: 500/500, [TMP: 40] MP: 550/550, LP: 8/8, SoS: 125 - Chain Reaction [+20%/+10] (U)
AURUM: Battle order: Eidolon [B]:0 Clarafina [F]:1 Ezekiel [F]:3 Nine [B]:33 Melinth Doel [F]:38 Solberg [B]:39
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [========= ] Prism Targeting(U) Heart Bind [Atelier Field] [120](3)
AURUM: Eidolon!
Ezekiel squints at the shapes.
Ezekiel: "Man."
Ezekiel: "I guess not having a solid shape really sinks your HP potential, huh?"
Nine: "Is this her final form at all?"
Eidolon: "Give it all you've got!" He spreads his arms to twelve and six, and slowly begins rotating them clockwise, dark circles appearing at the five-minute intervals. [CT30]
Annika: "I think the flux is skewing our perception of her strength..! I'm trying to get a lock on!"
Ezekiel: "You're right, This Isn't Even My Final Form procing would be hilarious."
AURUM: Clarafina!
Clarafina skips from ribbon to ribbon, before embedding her axe into the back of the flickering Doel-form. [Luck Bane - 50D]
Clarafina rolled 1d100 and got 85 ( Total: 85 ) for 80/10
[OOC] Clarafina: -1 LP!
Clarafina rolled 1d12+120 and got 1 ( Total: 121.0 )
AURUM: Hits!
Ezekiel darts in with a follow up slash! [Attack Assist]
Ezekiel rolled d100 and got 22 ( Total: 22 )
AURUM: Also hits!
Ezekiel rolled d8+81,150% and got 5 ( Total: 129.0 )
Clarafina: 121 physical damage. Red light fights with the gold - Luck Bane[50](4)! [She'll take 50 damage per spent LP while this condition persists.]
Ezekiel then spins around and goes wild while he's already in there!!! [After Me] [47D]
Ezekiel rolled d100 and got 78 ( Total: 78 )
AURUM: Ezekiel!
Ezekiel rolled d8+81 and got 5 ( Total: 86 ) for next thing to hit her does +30%
AURUM: Hits!
Clarafina slashes through another bond - [S.A Cut the Strings!]
Clarafina rolled 1d100 and got 69 ( Total: 69 ) for 80/10
Clarafina rolled 1d12*1.3+120*1.3 and got 3 ( Total: 159.9 )
AURUM: Hits! Eidolon!
Ezekiel: The monitors also tick down from 2 to 1!
Eidolon 's hands have gone full circle- four of them lit up! There's a twist in spacetime as the distance between his hands and Doel twisttttttttttttttt- infinitely longthenshort *SNAP* [Reverse Gravity, 20D]
Eidolon rolled 1d8+210,140 and got 8 ( Total: 305.2 )
AURUM: Hits! The Mist shimmers and writhes! Nine!
Nine closes his eyes "All systems, Red Alert" [Red Alert, 30D]
AURUM: Atelier Field activates, blasting the front row!
AURUM rolled d12+288 and got 8 ( Total: 296 ) for If any targets have a defense factor, tell me, and take zero damage!
AURUM: Dealing [296] magical Dryad damage!
AURUM: Heart Bind explodes for [120]!
Ezekiel: "Alright that hurt a bit I guess but it won't last long."
[OOC] Clarafina: HP: 171/700, MP: 180/500, LP: 1/10, SoS: 175
AURUM: Atelier Field also hits Eidolon in the back row fpr [296] magical Dryad damage due to Prism Targeting!
Eidolon: "What-"
AURUM: Battle order: Solberg [B]:0 Eidolon [B]:11 Ezekiel [F]:11 Clarafina [F]:12 Nine [B]:24 Melinth Doel [F]:29
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [===== ] Prism Targeting(U) Luckbane [50](4)
AURUM: Solberg!
Solberg intercedes for Eidolon and takes the brunt of it instead. [GA]
Clarafina looks awkward for a second.
Eidolon: "Ahahaha, it's appreciated."
[OOC] Clarafina: HP: 434/700, MP: 390/500, LP: 8/10, SoS: 175
Clarafina runs a hand through her hair. She's looking peppier, all of a sudden!
AURUM: Melinth Doel points at Eidolon and utters: [Patterns Like These Are Forbidden]! When anyone uses [Reverse Gravity], they are stricken (6): Take 180 damage after each action!
AURUM: "Flawed patterns yield flawed results."
Eidolon frowns.
AURUM: Luckbane procs for [100]!
Nine: "That's why you're here right now, yes"
Eidolon: "It was a great attack, that required assists from my comrades-"
AURUM: Solberg!
Nine: "No need to state the obvious"
Eidolon: "A finer setup you could never find!"
Eidolon: "Unless you did basically the same thing with a… I don't know, laser cannon on an airship."
Ezekiel: "I ain't even mad, if I was you I'd replace me with a laser cannon too"
Solberg takes [148], spreads [74] to both Nine and Eidolon each. [Passive: Empty Stance] Now that they have something to -do-, they send a flurry of brightly lit orbs between Clarafina [Quick: Spark] and Ezekiel [Split Pulse + Rapid Pulse, 50D - regen 120 HP (1)]
Solberg rolled d10+120 and got 1 ( Total: 121.0 ) for Spark for Clarafina
AURUM: Ezekiel, Eidolon!
Ezekiel cuts in! [Foward Strike] [40D]
Ezekiel rolled d100 and got 92 ( Total: 92 )
[OOC] Ezekiel: -2LP
Solberg rolled d6+50 and got 3 ( Total: 53.0 ) for initial healing for Rapid Pulse for both Ezekiel and let's make it Solberg instead of Clarafina WHOOPS
Ezekiel rolled d8+81 and got 3 ( Total: 84 ) for assist off this for 80HP and +20% hachi
Eidolon follows up Ezekiel's cut with an exploding star! [SA- Big Bang]
Eidolon rolled 1d12+180,120 and got 7 ( Total: 224.4 )
Ezekiel: oh uh
Ezekiel: +30% to that too,
Eidolon rolled 1d12+180,150 and got 7 ( Total: 280.5 )
Ezekiel: as the monitors tick down from 1 to 0, an alarm goes off, and they all start flashing "PARTY TIME: +30% TO ASSISTS"
AURUM: Eidolon!
Eidolon eyes Doel some more! [CT 10]
AURUM: Clarafina!
Clarafina holds out her hand, and ribbons form a black glove over it. She lunges in, axe held back, fingers outstretched - [As You Wish - 50D]
Clarafina rolled 1d100 and got 47 ( Total: 47 ) for 80/10
[OOC] Clarafina: -4 LP
Clarafina removes something.
Clarafina rolled 1d12*2+120*2 and got 2 ( Total: 244.0 )
AURUM: Oh dear.
Clarafina: Golden light pours out - Doel begins bleeding[122](3)!
A single spherical object falls from above in the wake of Clarafina's strike, it pings off the floor once- It goes off with an absolutely silent wave of impact [Flash Charge, S.A.] the deployment mechanism around Nine's right wrist folds into place
Nine rolled 1d100 and got 65 ( Total: 65 ) for 80
Nine rolled 1d8+72,110 and got 2 ( Total: 81.4 ) for Physical, Melee, Back Row
AURUM: Battle order: Eidolon [B]:0 Nine [B]:3 Melinth Doel [F]:8 Solberg [B]:29 Ezekiel [F]:30 Clarafina [F]:41
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [===== ] Prism Targeting(U) Bleed [122](3) Luckbane [50](3)
[OOC] Nine: HP: 426/500, [TMP: 40] MP: 550/550, LP: 8/8, SoS: 125 - Chain Reaction [+20%/+10] (U),Red Alert [+50%] (U),Rapid Deployment (U),Spell Charge [+20%] (U)
Annika: "H… hang on, this isn't right…"
Eidolon: "Looks like we stalled out, yeah?"
Nine: "Exponential scaling, I imagine?"
AURUM: "…hah!" She slams her fist down on the drive core, and part of it that was shut off hums back online just long enough for a lightning bolt to strike the effigy of Melinth through the aether, and dispel the illusion!
AURUM: Battle order: Eidolon [B]:0 Nine [B]:3 Melinth Doel [F]:8 Solberg [B]:29 Ezekiel [F]:30 Clarafina [F]:41
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [====== ] Prism Targeting(U) Bleed [122](3) Luckbane [50](3)
AURUM: "See? You've still got this!"
AURUM: Eidolon!
Eidolon: "That's better!" He blinks- his eye fires! [Oracle Energy, 35D[
Eidolon rolled 1d8+120 and got 5 ( Total: 125 )
marked!
AURUM: Nine!
Solberg takes advantage of Eidolon's strike and follows it up with a swift cueball shot of their own aimed at Melinth's direction. [S.A. Bank Shot]
Ezekiel: "Out of the red, into the orange." :(
Solberg rolled d12*1.3+144*1.3 and got 11 ( Total: 201.50000000000003 ) for it's 30% bonus right? anyway, magical damage
[OOC] Ezekiel: yup!
Nine pulls out a small paper satchel, puts it inside the cylinder. He twists the cap of the cylinder, connects the wire from his left sleeve into it as well as the crystal from his book [Blast Charge, CT15]
AURUM: Solberg glows with an ominous light - they deal +60% damage for (6) turns! Six swords materialise out of the mist, and whirl around her flickering form! [ARMS TEMPLAR]
AURUM: Battle order: Nine [B]:10 Solberg [B]:21 Ezekiel [F]:22 Eidolon [B]:27 Clarafina [F]:33 Melinth Doel [F]:40
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [==== ] Prism Targeting(U) Bleed [122](3) Luckbane [50](3)
AURUM: Nine!
Ezekiel: "That's new."
Solberg: Or his. Or who the hell knows.
Nine nods his head to the music a little "Understand, understand…" he tosses the cylinder up "The concept of love!" it hits the ground- "Unf!" it goes off in an explosion of prysmatic crystal dust! [Blast Charge, 35D]
Nine rolled 1d12+240,190 and got 1 ( Total: 457.9 ) for Doel takes +10% damage(7)
AURUM: Well, the swords are whirling around Melinth.
A second cylinder sails in the air, and strikes the ground erupting in flames! [Quick: Rapid Deployment]
[OOC] Ezekiel: HP: 657/700, MP: 550/550, LP: 4/6, SoS: 175
AURUM: Nevermind the huge ass buff is on Melinth.
Nine rolled 1d100 and got 7 ( Total: 7 ) for 100/25
AURUM: In addition to the ominous glow, and the swords.
Solberg: Oh. Well then.
Nine deals [110] Fire damage and a 40 DoT(4)
[OOC] Nine: Wait
[OOC] Nine: 121 since
[OOC] Nine: 121 since +10% taken
AURUM: Hits for a crap ton of damage!
AURUM: Two of the swords shatter, and the buff decreases to 40%!
AURUM: Battle order: Solberg [B]:0 Ezekiel [F]:1 Eidolon [B]:6 Clarafina [F]:12 Melinth Doel [F]:19 Nine [B]:24
AURUM: Status for Melinth Doel : [== ] Prism Targeting(U) Bleed [122](3) Luckbane [50](3)
AURUM: Solberg!
[OOC] Nine: HP: 426/500, MP: 540/550, LP: 8/8, SoS: 125 - Chain Reaction [+40%/+20] (U),Red Alert [+50%] (U)
Solberg lines up a [Geo Dash], aiming the orb through the remains of their earlier Pulse. [CT10]
AURUM: Ezekiel!
[OOC] Eidolon: HP: 506/600, [TMP: 120] MP: 600/600, LP: 8/8, SoS: 150 - [Forbidden: Reverse Gravity] (U)
Ezekiel steps in one last time to boost other people's damage! [After Me] [47D]
Ezekiel rolled d100 and got 6 ( Total: 6 )
Ezekiel rolled d8+81,200% and got 5 ( Total: 172.0 ) for sure okay -1LP, also +30% to the next person that hits
AURUM: Eidolon!
Eidolon claps his hands together, and an afterimage appears in front of Doel, but…
Eidolon: "You've probably got this, right Sol…?" [CT 20] [Chrono Burst Tax]
Solberg: "Pretty sure."
AURUM: Melinth claps her hands. "Useless!" Solberg and Clarafina are delayed to a tick after Melinth, and each take [120] damage!
AURUM: BUT THERE'S NO ESCAPING CHRONO BURST, IS THERE :E
Ezekiel: N O E S C A P E + 3 0 %
Eidolon: "I was trying to be nice-" "-nice" . It explodes. [Chrono Burst, 35D]
AURUM: Also she eats like 100 from Luckbane, too, which,
Eidolon rolled 1d12+240,30 and got 6 ( Total: 73.8 )
Eidolon rolled 1d12+240,130 and got 11 ( Total: 326.3 )
AURUM: Yup that's all she wrote.
AURUM: Mist starts venting out into space as the captain gets control back over the drive engine; the effigy of Melinth Doel suddenly clears up, forms into a single, stable image, and issues the warning: "Be careful what you wish for."
AURUM: And then she's gone.
Gained 30 XP!
Ezekiel: "Uh-uh-uh-understand, understand."
Nine sighs "I am actually tired of that phrase"
Ezekiel: "Anyway we beat up the thing, I think we're good to go."
Annika: "Speaking from experience: it's people who are tired of that phrase who most need to hea- oof!!" Aaaaand she's glomped by Rahia - the logomest in the allagan-ish robes from before, who didn't bother to introduce herself.
Clarafina smiles inscrutably. One of the ribbons winding about her is a little frayed, seeming almost like a serrated barb - she takes a moment to hide it.
Solberg: "Sometimes, you just want to know if you -could- do something, and not what would happen if you -would-."
Nine just giggles at the tumbling girls
Nine: "Well, you're fine now, I hope"
Eidolon brushes some mist off of his coat, a nebula stubbornly absorbs a bit, shifting colors from 'lonely space indigo' to 'white dwarf blue.'
AURUM: "Well, then."
AURUM: Annika takes a different tomestone - this one smaller, a little chunk of memory diamond - and tosses it to Solberg.
Solberg catches it.
AURUM: "Should have everything you need."
AURUM: "Like."
AURUM: "No matter what the hell it is you're trying to do?"
Solberg: "Possibility space. What am I -not- trying?"
Clarafina: "I believe we have a moon to pierce."
Ezekiel: "The veal…?"
AURUM: "Anyways, uh. Thanks for saving my ass. What are you guys planning to do now, anyways? Even if we shot your ship out our onboard cannon it wouldn't be able to escape the event horizon, we tried that-"
AURUM: "-or-"
Eidolon: "Omelettes."
AURUM: "-ohhh. You… hahaha. You want to do -that-?"
Solberg: "Yeah, we're not trying to escape the event horizon, apparently."
Eidolon: "Get your cameras ready, and link all viewports."
Nine: "That sounds like as good idea as any"
Ezekiel: "I'm pretty sure we're just gunna like, end up where ever regardless…? So."
Solberg: "This was always a one-way trip for us."
Nine: "You said there's a… Source of immense narrative potential in there"
Solberg: "Logomests and all."
Nine: "Who else can that be than the narrator themselves?"
Nine: "Let's go there"
AURUM: "Well, this'll be fun. You didn't tell me they were -deranged-, sweetheart." "I told you they had a logomest with them, isn't that enough?"
Ezekiel: "Point of order I'm not deranged I'm probably just still a bit blitzed."
Ezekiel: "Although I guess it was Nine that was talking… nevermind."
Solberg: "Just the one?"
Clarafina: "I think I'm something else<3."
Nine shakes his head
Nine: "Yes you are, Clara"
AURUM: "Hell, after all you've been through you might all qualify as logomests on top of being Angels."
Eidolon: "Oh no…"
Ezekiel: "Uhh."
Ezekiel: :Classic Mistake to make, "
Eidolon: "That's the exact sentence that makes me flee the scene."
Ezekiel: "But I'm actually a prophet, not an angel."
AURUM: "I'm pretty sure pool cue's, like, taken the official tests and shit though."
Eidolon whirls about. "See you in the theater, whitecoats."
AURUM: "Anyway it's all good, nobody has time for that shit." Rahia pretends to look offended and grins.
AURUM: "Head back to your ship."
AURUM: "We're gonna load it into the cannon,"
AURUM: "Then we're gonna point it at the moon,"
AURUM: "Then we're gonna turn every camera we have on the ship on and watch the fireworks."
Clarafina: "I second this plan!"
Ezekiel salute.
Solberg: "Hey now."
Nine crosses his arms, thinking, shakes his head "Let's do it then"
Eidolon floats down the hall. Does he know which way to go? No, but what's important is that you do it confidently.
AURUM: Rahia fistbumps Solberg wordlessly.
Ezekiel follows behind Eidolon, increasing the CoS of them ending up in the right place.
AURUM: Eh you just sort of go in a direction and follow your gut instincts and things work out, hey look, it's the Storm-White!
AURUM: You got this.
Solberg: "The first rule of logomest club…"
Clarafina: "…Hit people with it at the beginning of the fight, when no one needs healing?"
AURUM: "Argue endlessly over the order of the rules of logomest club?"
Nine is worried, but not about being shot out of a cannon into the moon
AURUM: "Ooh, I like that one better."
Rahia: "Anyways… I'm pretty sure you're right about what's inside the moon."
Rahia: "The entire machinery of the Apocrypha - or whatever it's calling itself these days."
Clarafina: "We're all free to scrap and rebuild ourselves, aren't we?"
Nine: "It
Nine: "Isn't yours, Clarafina"
Nine: "Anyway"
Clarafina blushes. "That's not quite what I meant!"
Solberg: "Well, the official charter of logomest club was lost to a bunch of frogs."
Nine: "Let's get going. Let's see if this theory holds true"
AURUM: She's waiting to wave you off, while you board the storm-white. "See you guys on the flip side. Maybe? Maybe not."
Nine: "Who knows"
AURUM: "Either way, good to meet all of you. Good luck out there."
Nine: "To you too"
Solberg: "And if so, who knows where?"
Solberg: "Take care."
Eidolon: "See you, space scientists."
AURUM: You board the Storm-White, and the sealed space amplifies, and extends; shimmers like a shell, the light of its lantern reflecting off the inside.
AURUM: Like a cannonball, in case this elaborate extended excuse for getting cannon travel in here somewhere wasn't clear yet.
AURUM: Wait, shit, there was cannon travel already, wasn't there? Well, now it's in here twice.
AURUM: Anyways.
Eidolon something something repeating themes and motifs.
Nine: "They fit ships better, anyway" he says, as he heads to the best place to watch, the bow
AURUM: The ship's moved from the cargo bay, to the forward cannon - a final check from Annika, blasted via loudspeakers they have in the cannon barrel for reasons unknown -
Ezekiel: "Haha did we leave without Nine stealing the egg?"
AURUM: You feel the entire ship around you, humming with energy, straining against the pull of the lunar anomaly - a giant unblinking golden eye staring at you in the night.
Nine: "Why would I steal anything"
Clarafina: "Moonstone cannon…"
Clarafina: "…Fire!"
Ezekiel: "I duno, the whole save/repair/rebuild/recreate the world thing?"
AURUM: A rush of energy, and then - you're free, hurtling into the event horizon - tendrils of light unfurl from the surface of the moon to welcome you!
Eidolon grips the wheel!
Nine: "I don't want something that I can't build and maintain myself"
Nine: "It wouldn't work in the long run"
Clarafina: "We stand on the shoulders of giants, don't we…?"
AURUM: You hit the surface with a smash and a shatter like breaking crystal, leaving an enormous crack or three along the face of the moon!
AURUM: Tunnel through the subterrane, losing speed, and break through -
Ezekiel glances out the window, then back at Eidolon.
Nine continues to just keep staring ahead, thinking.
Eidolon: "We weren't making a soft landing, if you're wondering!"
Nine: "That was obvious"
AURUM: An enormous Fiend Engine, taking up the interior of the moon, city-sized gears turning, mountain-sized flyweights whirling through the air, brass and crystal as far as the eye can see, and farther, and at the center, a perfect sphere of gold.
Ezekiel: ACTIVATING THE FIEND ENGINE
Ezekiel: DOESN'T
Ezekiel: EVEN
Ezekiel: DO ANYTHING
Ezekiel: THO
AURUM: (There's a label, in case it wasn't obvious - ＜秩序大光ヘン ： Ｔｈｅ Ｆｉｅｎｄ Ｅｎｇｉｎｅ ［Ｄａｒｋ Ｃｌｏｕｄｓ］＞ - as the ship finally loses speed - picked up by a tractor beam, then caught carefully in a brass claw.
AURUM: …it's a long, long way to the heart of the Engine, but that's where it seems to be taking you.
AURUM: Might be enough time to get a rest, or something…?